Opposition-ruled state governments ask Centre to stop playing blame game over inflation

New Delhi, Feb. 6 (ANI): Opposition ruled state governments on Saturday blamed the centre for the spiralling prices of essential commodities.

Their dissatisfaction came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met the chiefs of various states in New Delhi and discussed measures to check inflation.

Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that instead of blaming the state governments for rise in food prices, the government should take more serious measures to curb these.

"I made an appeal to the Prime Minister to tackle more seriously price rise issue and instead of blaming the state governments, the issue of price rise is the federal government's responsibility. Whatever the federal government instructs the state government to do, we will not step back. We said that all the state governments would stand by your decision," said Nishank.

Terming inflation a 'macro problem', Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik, demanded the federal government to deal with the issue very firmly and efficiently.

"This is a macro problem, so it has to be dealt with very firmly and efficiently by the central government. We are doing everything we can to check the prices but the federal government is largely responsible," said Patnaik.

In the meeting, Dr Singh asked state governments to ensure that the food articles released by the Centre quickly reach the intended beneficiaries.

He also asked the state governments to focus attention to developing market intervention mechanisms that can act as a supplement to the Public Distribution System.

The meeting also reviewed the implementation of the essential commodities act to check hoarding of food items. (ANI)